Peter Thiel's new book Zero to One is excellent, highly recommended. You may know, I worked for Peter for a while, back in the early days of PayPal, and he's as interesting and insightful as ever. You might enjoy this talk and Q&A he recently gave about the subjects in his book.

Some takeaway quotes:

All happy companies are different. Most unhappy companies are the same.

Favorite question: "Tell me something that’s true that very few people agree with".

Or something that most people think is true that isn't.

Courage is in far shorter supply than genius.

If there's no competition you get a monopoly, leads to success.

Google hasn't had competition since 2002

People who have monopolies pretend not to have them.

Companies with monopolies talk about bigger markets.

Companies without monopolies talk about smaller markets

Globalization is distinct from technological progress

Entrepreneur isn't a line item on your resume

Start a company because it's the best way to solve a problem

Bitcoin is flip side of PayPal

PayPal built a payment system, wanted to create a new currency

Bitcoin has created a new currency, wants to build a payment system

Build friendships as you build a company

Prehistory of a company is important: friends not just colleagues

Business ideas: “Find someone I trust, give me a recommendation”

Politics is broken and important

Start a new country – make it very differentiated to others

Business failure is like airport luggage – probability goes up until it goes to zero